This is about serial killers

Essay by KBrady, College, Undergraduate, A+, February 2004

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When Son of Sam first struck on the morning of July 29, 1976, no one could expect that a serial killer was making his debut. Two young women, Donna Lauria, an eighteen-year-old brunette, and her nineteen-year-old friend Jody Valenti, were talking in Jody's car near the entrance of the Lauria's apartment building in the Bronx, New York City. As they were talking, a man came beside the car and pulled out a Charter Arms .44 Bulldog handgun from a paper bag; he squatted down and fired into the car five times. Shot in the neck, Donna died immediately. Jody, shot in the thigh, leaned on the horn while the man continued to pull the trigger, even though the chamber was empty (Klausner).

This act was just the beginning for David Berkowitz. Police could find no motive for the attack. Finally, they theorized that it night have been either a mob execution with mistaken victims or a lone psycho. However, in the months to come they would find out they were terribly wrong. It was not until three months later that the Son of Sam struck again, and continued to strike on a month-to-month spree. In all cases, the survivors say a man approached then either in their car or on the street near their house and pulled a gun on them. Police were not yet able to link these attacks to a single individual. Things quieted for two months, and then in the early hours of January 30, 1977, the killer went hunting for his next victim. After the fourth killing the police had two theories: the killer was either psychotic or someone who had something against Christine Freund, his last victim. After further investigation, they discovered that her murder matched those other assaults on Donna Lauria, Donna LaMasi, and...